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AMERICA THE SENSIBLE
The country is more rock-ribbed than outsiders think TO JUDGE by some accounts, especially in the foreign press, America is shivering on the edge of hysteria. The GRANDES DAMES of Georgetown's dinner-party circuit are holed up in safe rooms, their children and servants decked out in nice new gas masks. The Pooh-Bahs of the New York media are dosed up on Cipro and psychotherapy. And the masses are too terrified to do anything other than pop pills and watch television. Quite unlike the Brits, who cheerfully endured the Blitz while singing choruses of "Knees up Mother Brown", America is suffering a collective nervous breakdown. The truth is much more interesting. It is that America's response to the first sustained terrorist attack on its soil is balanced, level-headed and sensible. A country that specialises in junk television and risible lawsuits is proving that, when it comes to serious matters, it is quite capable of being grown up. This is not to say that everybody is behaving with icy calm. A leading bodyguard school is doubling its enrolment and is opening another branch to cope with the surge in demand. The media are so overheated that big-name news anchors have taken to interviewing each other. But in a country as big and rich as America there are always going to be plenty of people with more money than sense. And for once the media have some excuse for over-reacting: media celebrities are among those in the eye of the storm. (Tom Brokaw, the NBC news anchor, "actually saw" the anthrax-laden letter that was sent to him, according to his assistant.) In general, Americans are taking the present unprecedented risks in their stride. There is a certain amount of adjustment, to be sure. Why not avoid unnecessary flights when terrorists are threatening to unleash a "storm" of aircraft on the country and airline security remains woeful? But people are continuing with their essential business. It is still almost impossible to get a reservation at the best restaurants. Anyone wanting to fly home for Thanksgiving had better book now. Sunniness spreads to the polls: one published on October 23rd by CNN/USA TODAY/Gallup shows that the percentage of Americans describing their mood as "good" has fallen by only five percentage points since last January. Two-thirds say anthrax does not worry them. Although 72% disagree with the idea that it is their patriotic duty not to be afraid (they will be afraid if they damn well want to be), 65% think there is no good reason to be afraid of terrorist threats. Most people have a fairly reasonable appreciation of the risks they face. Only about 1% of the population, for example, reports that somebody in their family has purchased Cipro, the anti-anthrax drug. The amount of anxiety in the air rises and falls with the news. When it looked as if the only form of anthrax people were likely to get was the easily treatable skin variety, there were jokes about "anthrax envy"; now that two more people have died from the lung form of the disease, a more sombre mood has descended. Anxiety diminishes the farther away you go from New York and Washington, the two cities hardest hit by terrorism. There are probably people in the mid-west who still think that Anthrax is just a rock band. This level-headedness is evident in almost every aspect of America's thinking about the war. Americans are not normally famous for their patience. But they were happy to give George Bush all the time he needed to prepare for military action in Afghanistan, and they also look quite a bit readier to cope with the frustrations of a long war than some of America's allies. Americans are even less famous for their tolerance of government, especially when it fails to work. But the government's clumsy handling of the anthrax threat has done nothing to sour the present wave of public support for the Feds. People realise that, after September 11th, there is no alternative to government action to deal with the problems being unleashed by terrorism. FOR ARABS, UNDERSTANDING Rather than railing against the Islamic world, most Americans are desperate to understand it. The best-seller lists are full of books on Islam, the Taliban and the Middle East. University students are crowding into courses that touch on the current crisis. Washington's Middle East Institute reports that applications for Arabic courses have doubled. Most surprising of all, Muslim clerics say that the number of conversions to their faith has quadrupled since September 11th. Almost half the population tells pollsters that it has a "generally favourable" opinion of Islam, and almost 90% say that the terrorists are part of a radical fringe that has nothing to do with mainstream Islam. And, praise be to tolerance, there has been no serious backlash against Arab-Americans. To be sure, there have been a few horrific murders and a certain amount of harassment. But most people, from George Bush down, have gone out of their way to recognise that the behaviour of a few nut-cases proves nothing about an entire ethnic group. One Moroccan immigrant has told Lexington that he feels "blown away" by the way America has treated him. He had feared the worst after September 11th; he got the best, with people solicitous about his well-being and curious about his faith. He feels "grateful" and "amazed". There is no guarantee that the level-headedness will last for ever. Another big act of terrorism might tip the country into hysteria. Maybe a long casualty list from Afghanistan could change things, though the odds are that this newly steady America can take even that. Are Americans concerned? Certainly. Are they taking precautions? You bet. But are they in a state of tight-sphinctered panic? Not a bit. The whingers who reached for their lawyers when their coffee was too hot have seen the light. The can-do pioneers who tamed a wild continent and then helped to win three world confrontations have not disappeared after all. See related content at http://www.economist.com/world/na/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=832940 Go to http://www.economist.com for more global news, views and analysis from the Economist Group. |
